Left
- the remains of the 100-year old torpedo installation
at Cliffe Fort, visible at low tide.

The
Thames is about a kilometre wide at this point.

These
photos were taken in October 1997.

The Irish-Australian Louis Brennan invented the guided torpedo which was
the "state of the art" coastal defence weapon from 1887 to
1903. The torpedo had two propellers, rotated by wires which were
attached to winding engines on the shore station and which played out after the
torpedo was fired. By varying the speed at which the two wires were
extracted, the torpedo could be steered to the left or right by an operator on
the shore.

Only one example of the torpedo itself exists, in the Royal Engineer's Museum
at Chatham. A number of launch installations survive apart from that at
Cliffe Fort, including one at Garrison Fort, Sheerness, one at Fort Meagher (formerly Fort Camden) in Cork Harbour,
and some in former British colonies in the Far East.